live tournament – Thinking Poker

I Just Won $160,000

Andrew — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:11:42 +0000

I started to title this blog something about getting eliminated or finishing in 53rd place but that’s an awfully pessimistic way of looking at it. I just won $160,000. I cashed in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker for the fifth time in six years, a feat that I’m told is unmatched in poker history. Perhaps more impressively, I’ve been in the top 100 three times in the last four years. I suppose that was an easy feat in the early days of the WSOP, but the average field size in the years I did it was over 6000.

On Day 1, I bet third pair for value on the river and got paid off. On Day 2, I called a turn check-raise all-in with an underpair to the board in a 3-bet pot, and I was right… until the river. On Day 3, I rode out a day-long run of bad cards without getting frustrated and doing anything (too) stupid. On Day 4 I induced a player to 5-bet his A9o all-in against my QQ. On Day 5, I had one of the best tournament players in the world on my left but even from out of position I kept him on his toes all day. On Day 6, I called three bets with Ace-high, and I was right. I almost called a flop check-raise all-in with Ace-high, and that would have been right too. On Day 7, I flipped a coin for hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity, lost, felt virtually no disappointment, and displayed even less.

And I did it all without ever speaking (never mind what I was thinking- I’m still working on that part) an unkind word to any of my opponents. There was no mockery, no muttering under my breath, and certainly no table slamming or card throwing or chair overturning. There was also no celebration, no gloating, hooting, whooping, or barking. I’m awfully damn proud of all of those things.

I’m awfully proud too to have so many great friends, many of whom I’ve never met in person, rooting for me from all around the globe. I had texts, tweets, emails, and blog comments pouring in from six continents, often from fans I didn’t even know I had. My only regret was that I wasn’t able to distract you all from your work for another two days, but I very much look forward to trying again next year. I wonder if anyone’s ever cashed four times in four years?

WSOP Day 5

Andrew — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:59:39 +0000

Just a quick update to say that I survived the day with a little shy of 1.6 million chips. I think that’s a touch above average. In some ways it wasn’t a real significant day. I won a sizable pot early on with a set vs. an overpair, but other than that I was mostly trading medium pots back and forth.

I knew that a lot was going to hinge on what happened with Christian Harder, who started the day on my left with just 200K. If he busted, he was very likely to be replaced by someone less good, but if he ran up his stack, it was going to make the day tougher for me. Well, he ran up his stack. I put a little thought into how to keep him from making too much of his position, but overall I definitely had to adapt my game as a result of his being there.

I did a few interviews today as well. Here’s a piece from ESPN’s Gary Wise wrote, and here’s an interview with PokerStars.tv. I did one with Cardplayer as well, but I don’t think it’s up yet. I’ll try to get you a link when it is.

I’m already 5 for 6 in Main Event cashes, and tomorrow I’ll be looking to lock up my third top 100 finish. Pretty exciting stuff. Sorry that I haven’t had time to respond to everything individually, but I really appreciate all of the tweets, comments, and e-mails that I’ve received. I promise that I’ve read and appreciated all of them.

Day 3 Table Draw

Andrew — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:13:24 +0000

Thanks to Dana Rossi for posting this in the comments.

Deepak Bhatti	77,510	Pavilion / 42 / 1
Paul Farmer	77,700	Pavilion / 42 / 2
Ryan Hall	94,300	Pavilion / 42 / 3
Vladislav Varlashin	111,000	Pavilion / 42 / 4
Lonnie Heimowitz	90,000	Pavilion / 42 / 5
Nicholas Newport	49,800	Pavilion / 42 / 6
Andrew Brokos	137,900	Pavilion / 42 / 7
Fabrizio Gonzalez	157,500	Pavilion / 42 / 8
Nathaniel Wachtel	161,300	Pavilion / 42 / 9

Not thrilled with the table, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be breaking the Pavilion tables first, so shouldn’t be stuck there all day. As Dana points out, the bigger stacks are to my left, and they appear to be mostly internet pros.

Day 2 Table Draw

Andrew — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:06:09 +0000

Just published, thanks to Kevmath for getting this out in the Twittersphere so quickly!

Sorel Mizzi 47900 – ie imperium ie famous multi-accounter and also frontrunner for last year’s player of the year
Andres Rodrigues 24125
Lauchlin McKinnon 35100
Claudio Rinaldi 63900
Russel Rosenblum 36975 – final tabled the main event in 2002, also played at my Day 6 table last year, pretty solid
Andrew Brokos 62475
Riekushein Wijermars 44500
Marc Wehrenberg 10200
Jason Newburger 33175

Those are the only two I recognize. I’ll be doing some research later today, but of course any info provided by enterprising blog readers would be most appreciated!

World Series of Poker 2011 Main Event

Andrew — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:30:38 +0000

I’m about to leave for the airport, and it occurs to me that I haven’t actually posted about my Main Event plans! I’ll be at the 2+2 party tonight and then playing my first day on July 9th, Day 1C. I’m in Vegas until at least the 12th, hopefully longer, so please let me know if you’re in town. I don’t have a lot of plans past the 9th.

Despite the record-setting turnout in the preliminary events, I’m predicting a smaller main event than we’ve seen in recent years. I think the influx at the prelims is largely due to relatively serious American players who in past years skipped the prelims to play online but this year didn’t have that option. I believe most of the players were already playing in the Main Event, so there won’t be the same surge of new players. Add to that the lack of online satellites for US players and I expect to see fewer than 6000 this year. Of course I hope to be proven wrong.

I know the Twitter account hasn’t been too active lately, but now is a good time to start following @thinkingpoker, because there will be plenty to say while I’m in Vegas.

Wish me luck and stay tuned!

… and Done.

Emily — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:37:16 +0000

Andrew busted at EPT Madrid shortly after the dinner break Day 1A.

I expect he’ll post a more thorough recounting tomorrow, but he did have a Spanish friend relay the busto hand info for me to share –

It was shortly after dinner break, with blinds at 300/600, Andrew had around 45.000.

Young aggro player with big stack opened to 1400 UTG+1, then UTG+2 called, and MP1 3-bet to 4200.

Andrew 4-bet to 14,000 from the CO with AK suited, and it got folded around to the 3-bettor, who called.Then flop came AQx, the other guy openshoved for around 30,000 (close to the pot size), Andrew called and the guy had QQ for a set of queens.

Thanks Nicolás!

NAPT Mohegan Sun Day 2

Emily — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:14:25 +0000

Didn’t get the table draw until the very last minute, but here it is:

1 Richard Woodall 81,000
2 Andrew Brokos 30,800
3 Mario Nagel 18,600
4 Douglas Johnson 33,000
5 George Kalaitzis 37,000
6 Mike Beasley 34,300
7 Cliff Josephy 32,100 (JohnnyBax)
8 Chris Bonita 24,500
9 Tony Cousineau 9,400

I’ve got the quick google info on everybody, but if you’ve played with any of these guys or have any other insight into their game, feel free to share away in the comments! And if you want to be more secretive about it you can email me at emily @ thinking poker.net.

WSOP Coverage

Andrew — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:28:54 +0000

I know a lot of you have seen these already, but I promised a few people big clear links in the body of a blog post, so here we go:

Poker News Video Interview

Poker News Hand Analysis

Let me explain for the record why I am wearing the ridiculous backwards hat in the video. I’d been wearing a hat all day, which I usually do when playing poker. They wanted me to take it off because the brim was casting a shadow over my face, but I had awful hat hair. So we compromised on a backwards hat.

Day 6 Table

Andrew — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:31:45 +0000

Thanks to piefarmer for finding and posting this.

Seat 1: David Baker (951000) NOT Bakes of FTOPS final table fame, I’m told
Seat 2: Andrew Brokos (1223000) table chipleader
Seat 3: Eric Baldwin (292000) Basebaldy online, 2009 Cardplayer player of the year, WSOP bracelet, UB sponsored player
Seat 4: Russell Rosenblum (152000) lawyer from Bethesda, MD; final tabled the main event in 2002
Seat 5: Brian Jensen (521000) 2007 PCA winner; played with him on Day 3
Seat 6: Rafael Sansrodrigo (440000) can’t find anything but chip counts
Seat 7: Breeze Zuckerman (738000) last woman remaining (I played with the second-to-last yesterday)
Seat 8: Paul Evans (305000) middle-aged guy, a lot of lifetime cashes, including two 2nd places in WSOP prelims
Seat 9: Adam Levy (1147000) Roothlus online, played with him deep in the 2008 WSOP, also UB-sponsored

Sure would be fun to bust both of UB’s horses today….

1.2 Million Going Into Day 6

Andrew — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:02:09 +0000

The starting table was about what I was expecting. There were a couple of good players, one of whom quickly lost a flip to me with AK to my JJ to get busted, and then a few quite weak players. Even more to my good fortune, a few of the weak players took sizable pots off of a few of the good players, which helped to keep the latter out of my way. In addition to the coin flip, I won two big pots that skyrocketed me over a million chips in the first half hour:

I call an early position raise with 22, and the SB calls also. Flop 7s 4c 2s. We all check- against better players I might bet here but right now I really felt like it was overwhelmingly likely these guys had nothing. Turn 3s. SB checks, other guy bets 26K, I make it 90K, SB folds, guy calls. River 3, guy bets 100K, I shove for like 300K more, he folds.

SB (TheOracleAA) open limps, and I check Q3s. Flop Q86, he checks, I bet 7K, he calls. Turn 3, he bets 16K, I make it 60K, he calls. River 3, he checks, I bet 200K, he calls and mucks.

I played another interesting pot with Oracle later in the day. He opened UTG, and I called UTG+1 with TT, everyone else folded. Flop 842, he checks, I bet 20K into 60K pot, he calls. Turn 3, he checks, I bet 75K, he calls. River 4, he checks, I bet 175K, he makes a crying call with JJ. That’s what I get for going for thin value in a tournament, but I dunno- we talked about the hand and he agreed he may well play 77 and 99 the same way. Honestly I thought even AK could be possible for him to call if he thought I was just barreling at it.

Much later in the day, the thin value betting worked out well for me in a weird way, though. Blinds 8K/16K, I opened to 42K with AKo on my button. SB folds, BB, this kid from Toronto who was acting like a huge douche, called. The flop came 3s 4s 6c. We both checked. Turn A, he checked, I bet 35K, he raised to 90K, I called. River 9s, he checked, and as I reached for chips, he told me not to go turning my hand into a bluff. I was pretty sure my hand was good and that he wasn’t putting me on a flush, since I hadn’t bet the flop, so I bet 200K. He instantly threw his hand away and started whining about how sick it was that I had gotten there and he shouldn’t have tried to get tricky on the flop, etc. That doesn’t sound like a hand that loses to AK….

So that was fun. Thanks for following along, and wish me luck tomorrow!

Day 5 Table

Andrew — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:33:31 +0000

I woke up this morning convinced that I would be assigned to the table of tournament chipleader Tony Dunst- the first time we met in real life was just moments before learning we’d be seated next to each other in a 5K 6-max- but I was spared that fate at least. Here’s how we’re currently fixed, though naturally a few of these names will probably change pretty quickly:

Seat 1: Vincent Chahley (167000) investment banker
Seat 2: Dorothy VonSachsen (112000) has final tabled WSOP prelims
Seat 3: Dimitri Rassam (529000) there’s an actor by this name, but he looks too young, as the poker player took second in a senior’s event at the Bellagio
Seat 4: Neil Tyler (220000) online player TheOracleAA
Seat 5: Andrew Brokos (487000) 4 for 5 in WSOP ME cashes
Seat 6: Steven Burkholder (356000) PiKappRaider online, won two FTOPS events, a WCOOP, and several Sunday majors, runner up in a $1500 PLO WSOP event
Seat 7: Gary Kostiuk (253000) no info
Seat 8: Lou Barlow (361000) not the musician. He won an online contest (not a satellite) to get his seat
Seat 9: Nikolay Losev (181000) a lot of deep cashes on the European poker circuit. I do like that his last name is “Lose EV” though.

Day 4 Table

Andrew — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:01:02 +0000

Couldn’t find much on most of these guys, which is probably a good thing:

Vincent Lodato 134,700 AMAZON/322/1
Andrew Brokos 503,300 AMAZON/322/2
Andrew Jeter 124,300 AMAZON/322/3
Simon Ravnsbaek 233,200 AMAZON/322/4 (couple of shallow cases on the circuit: WSOP, WPT, EPT, Aussie Millions)
Daan Slutter 172,900 AMAZON/322/5 (sponsored by Everest Poker, but only one live cash)
Spencer Hudson 167,600 AMAZON/322/6 (online player UHBigTex, won the Sunday Million, second in a WCOOP FLHE event, his P5’s profile lists JJProdigy as one of his favorite players WTF)
James Coca 121,000 AMAZON/322/7
William Schweinebraten 200,500 AMAZON/322/8 (5th in a WSOP circuit event, no other cashes)
Shane Rose 414,400 AMAZON/322/9 (LA live player, won the CA State Championships but no other notable cashes)

Day 3 is here!

Andrew — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:08:31 +0000

For those that didn’t see PieFarmer’s comment, here’s his summary of my Day 3 table draw with my parenthetical additions:

Danny Dam 198,000 AMAZON / 264 / 1 No info
Vincent Van Patten 174,200 AMAZON / 264 / 2 Celeb/Pro [wpt color commentator]
Thong Tran 57,100 AMAZON / 264 / 3 Vegas Pro w/ 3 cashes this WSOP
Cristian Busi 151,400 AMAZON / 264 / 4 No Info
Andrew Brokos 110,400 AMAZON / 264 / 5 philosopher
Michael Bunin 26,200 AMAZON / 264 / 6 no info [actor on TBS sitcom “My Boys”]
Brian Jensen 55,000 AMAZON / 264 / 7 pro from Denmark [won 07 PCA]
Vincent Elkael 25,000 AMAZON / 264 / 8 cashed Venetian deep stack 09 and 10
Dan White 56,900 AMAZON / 264 / 9 few small cashes 2009, non WSOP [active online player]

Play starts at noon PST with occasional updates on twitter.com/thinkingpoker…

Day 2a on the Twitter…

Emily — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:23:48 +0000

Day 2 underway, live updates on twitter. Messages are slightly encrypted because the A key is broken, but you’ll get the idea: twitter.com/thinkingpoker

Day 2A Table Draw

Andrew — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:23:06 +0000

Thanks for all your comments and encouragement. They mean a lot to me. Thanks especially to Todd and Emily, who both found and posted or sent me my table draw for today. Google didn’t turn up much, but here’s what I’ve got on them so far:

Ralph Blanco 47,175 AMAZON / 353 / 1 no info
Andrew Fegan 49,325 AMAZON / 353 / 2 played some prelim events in past WSOP’s but no significant cashes
Brad Jarrett 99,000 AMAZON / 353 / 3 satellite qualifier who’s been running hot
Anthony Scherer 39,000 AMAZON / 353 / 4 16th the year that I finished 35th
Mark Marcellus 11,050 AMAZON / 353 / 5 won a live satellite two years in a row, 118th last year
Martin Perez 16,000 AMAZON / 353 / 6 cashed in a few prelim events over the course of several years
Andrew Brokos 26,500 AMAZON / 353 / 7 fish
Csaba Knokoly 54,100 AMAZON / 353 / 8 no info
Jay Keeler 29,950 AMAZON / 353 / 9 no info

If you recognize any of these names, by all means let me know! I’m really bad at matching names/faces with screennames that I probably know well and have played with many times. It’s just one of the disadvantages of being an internet donk at a live tournament.

Overall seems like it could be a pretty decent starting table. Not a lot of chips, so we’ll probably lose some people early on. Hopefully I’ll be on the receiving end of those chips, and then we’ll see who shows up next. I’ll be back on Twitter of course, sans “a” key (if you see it occasionally, by the way, it’s because my phone auto-completes words and sometimes I get lucky and it does that with an “a” word.)

Survived Day 1

Andrew — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:07:55 +0000

Gross table, gross day. Can’t recall the last time I was so miserable playing poker. Pretty much never got above my starting 30K all day. Had some crap luck especially last hour and was down around 12K. Table was crazy aggro, maybe one or two pots all day went unopened and probably 30% or more were 3-bet. So I ended up 4-betting all in with JJ, ran into AA, but sucked out. Finished day with 26,500. Don’t think I could possibly get a tougher table for Day 2, so hopefully nowhere to go but up. I play again on Friday, thanks for all your support!

That Was Quick

Andrew — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:32:55 +0000

First hand of the day, I raise to 2500 UTG+2 with AKs. Older guy in the CO takes a minute to eye up my stack and think, then shoves some ridiculous amount like 35K. I’m pretty sure he has AQ, because of the hands he would monkey-ship, it’s the only he’s most likely to have to think about (AK/JJ he probably shoves a lot faster).

I’m equally sure he’s going to get there. Sure enough, dealer opesn the flop and it’s Q32 with one spade. Turn and river blank off and finished.

Holy Shit PCA Day 2 Table Draw

Andrew — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:07:02 +0000

Phil Fucking Ivey

Paul Carrillo

Stephen Baines

Lars Graf

Alan Complainsaw Kessler

Aaron Szerencses

Daniel Walter

Nam Le

Andrew Brokos

That’s right, I’ve got Phil Ivey on my immediate left. To be honest, I’m pretty excited to play with the guy, though I wish it weren’t in a 10K. At least I don’t have many chips to lose to him.

I haven’t googled anyone yet, but I also recognize Kessler and Le.

PCA Day 1

Andrew — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:42:11 +0000

We started with 30K, I was up around 50K at my peak, had 30K with two hands left to go in the day. Got into a three-way all in holding 66 on a 5h6c8c vs. 74 and AcJc. The straight held, but I won a small sidepot against the flush draw. Then next hand I doubled through him again to finish day with 16K. Blinds start at 500/1000/200 tomorrow.

Only other hand of note was versus another young guy early in the day, at my first table. Blinds 75/150, I limped KK UTG (had limped a couple times before as well). Kid raised to 400, got two calls, I made it 2400 with like 24K behind, only kid called. Flop was 775, I bet 2700, he called. Turn 8, I bet 7200 with 10K behind, he called. River 6, I checked planning to fold to a shove but expecting him to check it back pretty much always. He mucked when I showed my hand but told me later he had JJ and was going to fold the river, which I believe (actually, I think there’s a chance he calls river, but I still like my check).

What I don’t like is my flop bet sizing. I really gave this guy credit for being able to lay down an overpair just because my hand looks so much like what it is. I think I need to just bet bigger on the flop and then shove for like pot on the turn. I need to stop assuming that just because someone is a disshevelled 22-year old, he must know what he is doing.

Got another story to share later, but need to get to slee now. Thanks for all your support. Oh and sorry but I’m not able to do the real-time Twitter updates, cell phone doesn’t work down here.

Vacation is Well Underway

Andrew — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:21:00 +0000

For those who didn’t see Calmer’s comment yesterday, I didn’t last long at all on Day 2 of the WPT. My table was fairly tough, not that it mattered. There were a few, young internet players who seemed pretty tough, one or two middle-aged guys who were probably the soft spots but weren’t particularly bad, a dealer in one of the local card rooms who played well enough, then Men “The Master” Nguyen and Erick Lindgren.

Blinds started off at 500/1000/100- can’t say enough about the great structure tournament director Matt Savage put together! My 17K chips gave me the perfect stack for shoving over raises. The first time I was in the BB, action folded to one of the internet guys in the SB. I felt like he was probably going to raise any two, because most of those guys just cannot bring themselves to open fold. He made it 2400, which unfortunately told me he was probably good, capable of choosing just the right bet size. But I had 44, moved all in, and got him to fold quickly. “I’m gonna pump your stack up 2400 chips at a time,” he told me, with a hint of disdain in his voice.

“Feel free,” I responded.

My second BB, one of the weaker players opened to 2100. I hate calling raises with such a short stack, but with Q9 I felt like I had to. I check-folded to 4500 on a ragged flop.

On my third BB, action folded to the SB again. He opened to 2400 again. It’s hard to say what his range is here, given that I shoved on him last time. I could see him open shoving some hands that he didn’t want to raise-fold or raise-call, stuff like QJ and suited connectors. But I doubt he was open folding anything, so he probably had a lot of bluffs in his range anyway. I shoved with K3o, but he had AA and that was that.

I’d only wasted half an hour on the tournament that morning, so Emily and I took off for Santa Cruz, where we camped by the beach. There are worse consolation prizes!